Overview

Few realize that the origins of today's well-used phrase, 'dark night of the soul', lie with a 16th century mystic and Carmelite monk, St. John of the Cross, (1542-1591). Along with his contemporary and friend St Teresa of Avila, St John furthered the cause of Christian mysticism, and was responsible for reforming the Carmelite Order during the time of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. In his masterwork, 'Dark Night of the Soul', St John analyses the process of purgation, the initial step in a three-stage process leading to Union with God. Purgation itself has two phases, first of the senses and then of the spirit, and the saint describes how the trials the soul must undergo - when all familiar spiritual feelings disappear and God Himself appears to abandon the seeker - are a necessary purification, leaving an individual ready to receive illumination and eventually achieve Union with the Divine.

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9781908388865

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